Sep
15
2011
1

Technology Agnostic: Developing In An Adapting World




 

 

 

Technology Agnostic: Developing In An Adapting World.

Excerpt:

Technology Agnostic: Developing In An Adapting World

By: Juan Bonfante

As a web developer I’ve noticed that over the past five to eight years, a trend to develop applications that can run ubiquitous of their environment. With the rising popularity of cloud computing and the emerging mobile markets, enterprise clients have started to move away from the model of building web applications that would only run on one or two particular browsers, in order to create dynamic applications that can run virtually on any device, without degrading their brand or the user experience. And while this idea now permeates all aspects of our daily lives, as a developer this can almost seem like an insurmountable challenge. As a developer how do you keep up with all of the new languages, frameworks, and API’s out there? How do you become technology agnostic?

May
23
2011
0

Why I keep going Back To Flash




Over the past year, I’ve done very little in the Flash/Flex world; Not because I thought the Apple had won, but more around the interest of learning what else is out there. After a year of HTML5/Javascript, iOS, Android/Java, and a little Python; Everything I learn makes me want to get back to Flash. Albeit I’ve learned that prototyping with jQuery(HTML) can be quite easy, and extremely fun; having to tweak my code for different browsers, reminded me of the negatives.

Then while iOS and Android offer extremely nice IDE’s for coding, and meticulously documented API’s, getting from idea to app can be a headache specially if you’re coding for both. Enter Appcelerator’s Titanium, which allows you to write apps for iPhone and Android using JavaScript (and a few other languages); I found the size and performance of the applications to be a little bit hard to swallow, but at least you’re not jumping around between Objective-C and JAVA.

And then I start looking through all my favorite Flash blogs and am reminded of why I love Flash so much in the first place. First off:

Simple Flash GUI Tool – an extension of MinimalComps by Keith Peters, and probably one of my favorite Flash libraries outside of TweenMax. This one is by Justin Windle over at SoulWire. And was originally posted like 5 months ago.

PixelBender 3D – Do I need to say more? Hardware 3D rendering, built on top of “Molehill”

Wallaby – This is a sweet idea to turn Flash sites into HTML. Not that I completely agree with the idea, but the option is pretty sweet.

Last but NOT LEAST:

Adobe AIR – Yup it’s AIR. If you didn’t know already, with AIR you can write Flash applications to run on your favorite Android or iOS device, as well as some of the newer Blackberry (RIM) devices. It also does desktop too… but you probably already knew that.

So to those who said Flash is dead, let me know when the other half of the internet opens up for you.

 

Oct
12
2010
1

Rocky Mountain Flash Camp – Flex 4 Skinning and Styling – 10.12.2010




[update] Session recording is now online. You can view it here:  http://realeyes.acrobat.com/p33956060/

Presenting today in Denver, at Rocky Mountain Flash Camp. Talk is on Flex 4 Skinning, and here are the files needed to follow along.

FXP Project:

RMFlashCamp.fxp

Changed the background image in honor of the conference. Took it earlier this morning, on my drive into the conference… Location: Somewhere in the mountains? (Around Rollinsville somewhere)

Sep
16
2010
0

BFusion/BFlex 2010 – 2 Sessions on Flex 4 – 9.12.2010




[From BFlex site]
What is BFusion/BFlex?

BFusion/BFlex is no normal conference. It is a no-nonsense, learn-to-code* and learn-it-from-the-best event. Each day there are six full hours of hands-on training with the various technologies and techniques. You bring your computer and desire to learn and our excellent instructors challenge you to take your mind to new places. http://bflex.indiana.edu/

———————————

This past weekend I went out to Indiana University with Adam Flater for BFlex. We did two sessions on Flex 4; Skinning in Flex 4, and Flex 4 for Flex 3 developer. The purpose of the latter session was to try and get Flex 3 developers up to speed on the changes inside of Flex 4. One of the main details is the new Spark component architecture, and how it differs from the old MX architecture, mainly there’s just a new package nomenclature, as well as slight changes to the old component names (i.e. HBox is now HGroup) ; There are major changes to the States classes as well as the addition of new Layout class that decouples layout logic from individual component definitions. In this session we went into how to use layouts efficiently, as well as how to create custom layout classes,  the process of extending the basic layout class and applying it to components, and also how to change layouts at run-time. We went into detail about how to use the new DataGroup component, which is similar to the old Flex 3 repeater, and also using virtualization for dealing with larger data sets.

The skinning session dealt more with how to style the new components inside of Flex 4. The new major change is Flex 4′s ability to use FXG, which make drawing graphic primitives inside of Flex 4 that can be used very easily to apply skins. Using the basic example of a button, we showed how adding states and extending the basic button class is now alot easier than in Flex 3. Using the new dot(.) notation in the Spark architecture simplifies the process of creating skins, as well at how it decouples the visual implementation of a skin, from the data logic of a component, making skins extremely re-useable. The new skinning framework now allows for skins that can be state based, and even change layouts dynamically. We also showed how to extend the base SkinnableContainer class to apply styling and skinning to components that have none (i.e. Group), and even extending the Panel container to create a custom skin. We lightly touched on Flex4′s CSS capabilities, but Flex4 CSS will be a post all on its own.

We promised our code examples to the attendees, and we haven’t forgotten, but we are polishing them up, as well as we will be creating screen casts, so anyone can better follow along. (it’s about 3 hours worth of information, so please be patient :)

For more resources the Adobe Developer Connection is a great place to get up to speed with the newest features of Flex 4.

Thanks to all of the organizers, staff, attendees, and speakers that attended, it was great to meet all of you. Next up  I’ll speak at Rocky Mountain Flash Camp, Oct 12.

Aug
27
2010
0

[Life] Re-Hashing Old Memories




A While ago I made this… a while ago like 7 years:

Karma

Karma

And I specially think it resonates true to this day.

Written by in: General,Uncategorized | Tags:
Jul
15
2010
0

Hi-Res Printing in Flash with AlivePDF




Printing with Flash has always been one of those nagging issues I’ve never been able to successfully defeat, using the Flash PrintJob class that is. Although I want to sit here, and tell you how awful the PrintJob class is, I’ll let you try to explore that rocky road all by yourself; When you get to the point when you’re trying to use PixelBender for possibly getting a better algorithm for blending from pixel to pixel, and its still not working let me know, I could’ve saved you like 2 weeks worth of hair pulling by simply telling you to use: AlivePDF.

(more…)

Mar
13
2010
0

[Presentation] Learning From Example – 03.13.2010




[UPDATE] This did not use any Android AIR/Flash.

Chicago Google Technology conference GTUG #7.

The original idea was developed by Adam Flater, Jesse Freeman and Jordan Snyder, my co-workers at Roundarch. Utilizing Merapi, a Java-AIR messaging bridge, we are able to control a Flash presentation from the comfort of your palm (in my case, my Nexus One). The example is a basic one, but the wow-factor is what its all about. It also opens the door to show that we can have alot more complex interactions and messaging between an android phone and the flash platform.

You can find more information about merapi at www.merapiproject.org

Follow @adamflater and @dmeeker creators of Merapi.

The project utilized BumEngine, created by Jesse Freeman (@theflashbum)


Mar
13
2010
0

Eclipse Android Icon




So if you’re on a Mac, and like me have multiple installations of Eclipse, you want to set them apart in your dock, and when you alt+tab. I put together this icon file that will give your Eclipse icons a new look, its a mini droid! Enjoy.

You have to goto your Eclipse installation directory, Right-Click your Eclipse Icon -> Show Package Contents -> Contents -> Resources -> REPLACE ECLIPSE.ICNS

Reboot Eclipse

should look like:

Written by in: Android | Tags: , ,
Mar
02
2010
0

OpenZoom Template




This is the OpenZoom viewer found in the downloads of the OpenZoom project under examples/cs4/multiScaleImage.

All I did was change the AS to look for a ‘source; property in the FlashVars object of the HTML page.

Enjoy.

I used this template for a presentation, now I’m sharing it with everyone.

OpenZoom_Presentation_Template

http://github.com/openzoom

Written by in: Uncategorized |

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